News-Info-Alerts

Re: Recollections of a Bataan Death March Survivor

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: December 09, 2003

"Fighting on his birthday
Survivor of Bataan Death March recalls World War II
By KEVIN HOWE
khowe@montereyherald.com

Ted Pflueger was looking forward to a party celebrating both his promotion to first lieutenant and his 28th birthday when the San Francisco radio station he was listening to broadcast news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.

The date was Dec. 8, 1941, and the place was an airfield Pflueger and other members of the 809th Aviation Engineering Co. were building at Nichols Field near Manila, capital of the Philippines.

The Philippines, west of the International Date Line, was a day ahead of Hawaii. "For me," Pflueger said, "Pearl Harbor Day will always be Dec. 8."

When he heard the news, he woke up the other three officers sharing a billet with him.

They called their company commander, who checked with corps headquarters, Pflueger said, and they were told to not take any action and "sit tight until you're shot at.

"We didn't understand that."

The engineers decided to "sit tight" by holding a practice alert and taking up defensive positions around the airfield.

As supply officer, Pflueger said, he had requisitioned -- and got -- plenty of ammunition for the company to train its troops in airfield defense, anticipating the Japanese might attack with parachute troops.

Within hours Japanese planes arrived overhead, bombing and strafing the field. The engineers replied with ground fire that downed two enemy planes. "We got a unit citation for that," Pflueger said.

The only building significantly damaged in the raid, he said, was the officers' club, where his party was supposed to be held that night.

"The party never happened," he said.

After that first attack, "We dug in, and the war started."

The company was put to work destroying buildings, aircraft, supplies and fuel stores at Nichols Field to keep them from falling into Japanese hands, Pflueger said, and by Christmas Day, he and the rest had evacuated Manila for the Bataan Peninsula.

More demolition followed.

Pflueger earned the Silver Star for blowing up assault tunnels dug by the Japanese long before the invasion of the Philippines in preparation for the takeover. American troops kept discovering caches of Japanese small arms and mortar ammunition scattered around the islands, stashed in advance to resupply invading troops.

One of his engineer company's duties, Pflueger said, was to blow the last bridge to Bataan.

"We had orders to wait for the tank battalion that was holding a rear guard action before we blew the bridge," he recalled.

"A bunch of generals came through and wanted us to blow it right then. We waited for the tanks."

Bataan held out against the Japanese until April 9. The island fortress of Corregidor fell nearly a month later, May 6.

As he and the other surrendered troops were marched off to a prisoner of war camp, Pflueger said, "we could still see the flag flying over Corregidor. It was a wonderful sight."

The troops passed a Japanese artillery position firing on Corregidor, and Corregidor's guns were firing back.

"One round made a direct hit and wiped out two guns," he said. "We cheered."

Pflueger and his company ended up at Camp O'Donnell, which had been built by U.S. Army engineers as a training camp for the Philippine Army, but was converted by the Japanese to hold captured troops.

O'Donnell became infamous.

"We started dying off at about 150 a day," Pflueger said. "The Filipinos were dying at four times that rate."

O'Donnell's inmates were being transported by "hell ship" to Japan on Sept. 7, 1944, when the vessel was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Mindanao, Pflueger said.

Of the approximately 800 POWs aboard, "only 83 of us swam ashore alive. One died the next day. Of those, 17 are still living."

Japanese troops in the ship's lifeboats fired at Americans swimming in the water, Pflueger said. "I don't think anyone made it to the beach without getting hit at least once."

Pflueger pushed one man with a broken shoulder ashore. Others had broken arms and legs from bullet wounds.

The survivors linked up with Filipino guerrillas and were eventually evacuated to Australia, and from there to the United States.

Back in Omaha, Neb., Pflueger said, he was staying in a hotel when he received a notice to appear in court for failing to register for the draft.

The peacetime draft had started while Pflueger was still in the Philippines and he had extended his tour of duty there. The FBI, he said, was apparently checking hotel rosters to find draft dodgers.

"A friend of mine, a reporter for the local paper, wrote a story with the headline, 'Bataan Death March Hero Summoned for Draft Dodging.' The judge I was supposed to appear in front of called me and told me, 'Don't come near my court with that summons.'''

The horrors and privations of Camp O'Donnell continued to take their toll of the survivors, Pflueger said.

"An internal time bomb was planted. Most of them died in the first five years after they got back; one in an auto accident, others from various causes. One was shot dead by his wife's lover when he got home."

His family and friends will celebrate his 90th birthday today at his home in Pacific Grove, Pflueger said.

The knees that were dislocated by the Japanese in prison camp give him trouble, but he's still able to see, hear, walk and drive.

"I survived because I've got good genes," he said.

Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416. "